As far as church plants go, you don’t get much more ‘connected’ than Bobbin Head Anglican Church.

The church meets at  Turramurra North Public school.

Several church members are involved in the P&C or in the parent community and they have a group that meets regularly to pray for the school.

For congregation members it’s not so much about making opportunities but which ones to take. The church is almost woven into the fabric of school life.

During the recent council elections when the school was used as a polling place, it seemed quite natural for church members to take along their coffee machines to serve free refreshments to bleary-eyed voters.

One of the organisers, Belinda Burn, says the response was terrific. “This is the second time we’ve done it and people just love it. They can’t believe it’s free and they ask where it’s from and why would we do this. It’s very positive.”

Minister, the Rev Steve Calder says there were great conversations around the coffee and even though the coffee was free, people donated.

“We gave the donation money to the school. We’ve got a great relationship with the school and we want to maintain that, we want to be well integrated, well connected into the school and this is a way we can help them as well."

Bobbin Head is only one of a number of churches that use their members' barista talents to connect.

Shellharbour City church offers free café-quality coffee at a local school every week and they believe it’s a great conversation starter as well as a positive profile-raiser for the church.

A video promoting the idea released through Sydneyanglicans.net has seen the concept picked up by other school-based churches, including Christ Church at Penrith Anglican college.

Qualitative research done during planning for Connect09 found that although there were many great initiatives around the Diocese, there was little sharing of ideas.

If there are coffee connoisseurs in your congregation - get them to load up their coffee cart and get connecting!